This is certainly one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I have ever conceived and organized, especially given its collective and individual significance. I am immensely proud to have come up with the idea and to have worked to bring it to life.
The Context of the Floods:
In May 2024, the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil was ravaged by floods of unprecedented proportions in the region. Virtually the entire state was affected. More than 180 people died, dozens were reported missing, and thousands were left homeless. Wikipedia provides details on the extent of this climate-related tragedy. That’s according to official data. In one way or another, the entire population was affected.
I was one of those directly affected. Since the building where I lived at the time was situated in the flooded area, my neighbors and I had to be rescued by boat after three days stranded by the waters of the Guaíba Lake. I spent 24 days away from home, passing through four different cities and carrying only what fit in my backpack at the time of the rescue. Although I didn’t suffer any material damage, I wasn’t unscathed emotionally.
Help during a Disaster:
I had been working on the cultural program at the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre for less than a month when the floods began. From the distance, I followed the dramatic situation faced by dozens of cultural institutions in the city that were unable to operate due to direct or indirect damage from the floods. Fortunately, my workplace was not among them, as it was located in an elevated part of the city.
Taking advantage of this privileged situation, I proposed to the Institute Director that the institution open its doors to affected artists so they could continue to work during the reconstruction period. Thus, for months, the auditorium of the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre hosted film screenings, as well as classes and rehearsals for music, theater, clowning, and dance. It was a temporary, but essential measure during this period of collective chaos, as efforts were made to restore the city’s infrastructure.
An Open Call:
This act of solidarity was proving to be very important, but I felt there was a need for a larger project that would help the city’s cultural scene come to terms with the climate tragedy and recover financially. That’s when the idea for an open call for a group exhibition came about. From the very beginning, I was convinced that we needed to avoid a documentary-style approach to the environmental tragedy, since we were all already overwhelmed by the dramatic images of the flood. Instead, we encouraged artists to create new works in various formats, based on the idea of a Porto Alegre that doesn’t exist but that we wish existed — a city where real and imaginary, individual and collective dreams can coexist. A possible or utopian Porto Alegre, depending on each artist’s imagination and poetic vision.
To help us draft the call for entries and produce the exhibition, we invited hipotética, a comic book publisher that, having previously operated an art gallery, had extensive experience with exhibitions. Another reason was that the publisher’s warehouse had also been hit by the floods, and many books were lost. As if that weren’t enough, this partnership also yielded the perfect name for the project: “hipotética” means “hypothetical.”
The Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre and the publishing house hipotética therefore developed the call for entries for the group exhibition “Porto Alegre hipotética” [“hypothetical Porto Alegre”]. Fifteen works were selected, each receiving a prize of 1,500 reais (around 275 dollars back then). But it didn’t stop there.
Art Fair and Cultural Program:
For the exhibition’s opening, we organized a graphic arts fair in the lobby and library of the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre building, featuring artists and publishers directly affected by the floods. This allowed them to sell their works and raise some funds to recover from the damage that occurred in early May. There was no cost for them to participate in the fair, even the food was provided by the institute.
To ensure a strong turnout, I put together an extensive cultural program to accompany the fair and the exhibition. Thus, on September 28, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre building hosted a film screening, a literary discussion, music and theater performances, among other events. One common thread among all the items on the event’s program was that everyone involved had been directly affected by the floods. And many of the groups that performed that day were using the institute’s spaces for classes and rehearsals.
The café at the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre, which had been closed for years, was reopened especially for this day. Craft beers were also on sale. And even the food service was handled by people who had been directly affected by the floods.
It was a beautiful day, and the event was packed. There was a very special energy in the air — not only because of the wide and varied cultural offerings, but also because of the commotion caused by the climate tragedy. One could feel a spirit of collective solidarity for everything the city had been through and was still facing.
Wrapping up the project:
Two months later, we concluded the exhibition in a more intimate setting, involving only the artists. In the institute’s library, we organized a roundtable discussion where each artist could share their experiences of the floods. At the end of this moment of collective catharsis, the exhibition was taken down in an almost ritualistic manner, with each artist taking their work home.
Records and other information:
Below, you can see the promotional poster for the fair, based on the work “Jardim de um futuro possível” [“A Garden of a Possible Future”] by João Salazar, one of the pieces selected in the “Porto Alegre hipotética” call for entries.
The photos of the event presented here are by photographer Antonio Mainieri.
And the video below captures one of the countless moving moments of that day, when the Ói Nóis Aqui Traveiz theater group put on a performance in front of the institute, including a circle dance with the audience. I was deeply moved when I filmed the video; after all, the “Terreira da Tribo” — the headquarters of this traditional theater group — had been severely damaged by the May floods, resulting in the loss of equipment, sets, costumes, and the space used for classes and rehearsals.
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Event date: September 28, 2024
Location: Porto Alegre, Brazil
Full schedule:
10:15 a.m. – Film club session hosted by the Porto Alegre Film Club, in partnership with the Paulo Amorim Film Archive
Screening of the documentary “Mirante” by Rodrigo John, followed by a discussion with Leonardo Brawl Márquez (Translab.Urb)
AUDITORIUM
12:30 p.m. – Performance “Memórias”
[Project selected through a special call of the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre Library]
AUDITORIUM
1:15 p.m. – SOUL 51 – “And After the Water?” Poetry and songs during the flood season by Léo Monassa and Vitor Goiz
[Project selected through a special call of the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre Library]
AUDITORIUM
2:00 p.m. – Official opening of the exhibition “PORTO ALEGRE HIPOTÉTICA”
GALLERY
2:15 p.m. – Audiovisual performance “How Mano Tesla Dreamed”
[Work selected for the “Porto Alegre hipotética” call for submissions]
GALLERY
3:00 p.m. – Literary discussion: Julia Dantas, Irka Barrios, and Guto Leite
AUDITORIUM
4:15 PM – Sketches “Territories of Laughter”
GARDEN, STAIRS IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING, AND LOBBY
5:00 PM – Performance “I Protect Humanity, Humanity Protects Me”
STAIRS IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING
6:00 PM – Mini-concert by Marcelo Delacroix
GALLERY
7:30 PM – Closing concert: Pâmela Amaro + Lucas Kinoshita
AUDITORIUM
Artists featured in the group exhibition:
Alexandre De Nadal, Ali do Espírito Santo, anaiáiá, Ana Paula Bertoldi, Andressa Ahlert, Anelise De Carli and Camila Proto, Denny Chang, Eulália Manual, Fabiano Gummo and Marcelo Armani, João Salazar, Lael Peters, Raquel Brust, Santiago Pooter, Tali Grass, and Wagner Mello.